Happy Birthday!, 4/14

“ Every concept is necessarily and essentially inscribed in a chain or a system, within which it refers to another and to other concepts, by the systematic play of differences” (127)

Class today was extremely thought provoking. I now find myself re-reading everything I’m writing just to make sure that I’m saying what I’m trying to say…none the less I’m so confused when I write!! I kind of always knew that there were words in our culture that had multiple meanings. For example, “fag”, “gay”, “retarded”, “sick”, “bro”, the list can go on. It’s crazy that this is what our language has turned into. As days go on I’m afraid language is getting more and more butchered. It seems as though pop culture is developing more quickly by the second…which leads to language being morphed/twisted/construed to fit the pop culture. It only makes sense that this language is being cut up because it makes it shorter…faster to read…because we are a generation fixed on instant gratification and receiving information immediately.

This makes me wonder if ten years from now will there be papers published in “text speak”? Will professors start teaching in this sort of fashion? Will this become a new language?!?! Bourdieu states, “ The farther a paper extends its circulation, the more it favors such topics that interest ‘everybody’ and don’t raise problems. The object-news- is constructed in accordance with perceptual categories of the receiver”. I know that majority of people do not use this sort of “text speak” but it is rising fairly fast amongst the younger generation. I wonder if this has an effect on their learning capabilities and attention span. My younger sister just turned sixteen and literally cannot sit down and read a book. She says it’s not interesting and she jut cannot stay focused. Yet, I wonder if it was written in this new sort of language “text speak” if she would be able to read it quicker and understand concepts and themes more thoroughly.

Derrida brings up some very good points about our language and the existence (or declining existence) of it. He challenged us in our writing and challenges everyone to question every single word he or she puts down on a piece of paper. The fact of the matter is, no matter what anything we say can be twisted and morphed into something else used against us…or used to help us.